Cultivation
"Those who are below the Metaphysical Realm are just mortals. When a mortal reaches Level Nine, though he’s not an immortal, he can use some immortal strength. That’s why you are no match for him!” - Green Spirit The martial arts skills in this world emphasized balancing the Inner and Outside Cycle. Three Realms were included, Skin-Toughening, Bone-Forging, and Tendon-Changing. Aside from this, the three realms were further divided into nine levels. Internally the warrior worked on his breathing and Qi, while externally worked on his muscles, bones, and skin—these two maxims were the most widespread in martial arts circles, and also the most fundamental. In the three realms, every realm was divided into three small states, namely Basic Level, Advanced Level and Full Closure. Taking the Skin-Toughening Realm for example, when you had reached the Basic Level Realm of the Skin-Toughening Realm, in theory, you could break through to the Level Four Bone-Forging Realm. The Basic Level of Skin-Toughening Realm was the lowest requirement to break through into the Bone-Forging Realm. In actuality, no matter what realm, if you could not reach the Basic Level Realm, you would have no qualifications to break through to the next realm! In this world, most of the Skin Toughening punching skills' maximum potential, were only Skin-Toughening Realm's Basic Level only. There were people who could cultivate a higher level Skin Toughening punching skills. They then had the qualification to enter the Advanced Level Realm. For the Advanced Level Realm to break through to the next realm, the chances were much bigger than Basic Level. Outside of Three Realms. there is another Three Realms. Skin Toughening, Bone Forging and Tendon Changing are only the small Three Realms. Pulse-Fixating, Blood-Changing and Marrow-Cleansing are the big Three Realms. Only after going beyond these big Three Realms, can one say that he has jumped out of the three realms! Metaphysical / Mysterious Realm The true problem lay in the leap from Three Small Realms up to Three Large Realms, where most people would get stuck. Though a few would succeed and obtain the Karma Rank of Individual Immortal. The Individual Immortal of Mystery! The Mysterious Realm in this life was actually the Individual Immortal Karma Rank in antiquity times. After entering the Karma Rank of Individual Immortal, the advantage enjoyed by the practitioner in antiquity times would become less evident, which in effect, was basically extinguished. The reason was that once you reached the peak of Marrow-cleansing Realm, you would undergo the Nine Kalpas—nine times of Thunder Tribulation. Only when you had endured one Thunder Tribulation, could you truly leap out of the Three Realms and achieve the Genuine Immortal Karma Rank. Compared to this life, the Thunder Tribulation was even tougher in antiquity times. If you didn't make it, you would be done. Your body would die out and your ability would wither away. But if you survived one, congratulations, you would really jump out of the three realms and enter the Genuine Immortal Karma Rank, upgrading to a Genuine Immortal. Thunder Tribulation actually referred to more than one trial. If you wanted to strike further and break through the Genuine Immortal Karma Rank, you would have to constantly exploit the thunder of the highest heaven to purify your body, as, at that point, only the thunderbolt would be eligible to further enhance your body. If you managed to pass another eight Thunder Tribulations, you would forge yourself a golden body and achieve the Human Immortal Karma Rank. The so-called golden body accomplishment after nine Thunder Tribulations meant to be the Human Immortal Karma Rank. What would then happen after the Human Immortal Karma Rank? That would be the collection of Three Flowers and the congregation of Five Kinds of Qi. A Genuine Immortal who was outside the three realms and the five elements and had experienced one Thunder Tribulation was called a "Sage". A Genuine Immortal who pulled through two to five Thunder Tribulations, would be titled as “Venerable”. Genuine Immortals who had undergone six Thunder Tribulations could be titled as a "Lord of Heaven". Five Immortal Realms The so-called Five Immortal Realms referred to five realms that were divided into the Celestial Immortal, the Earthly Immortal, the Divine Immortal, the Human Immortal, and the Ghost Immortal. The Ghost Immortal ranked lowest among all the immortals, while the Celestial Immortal ranked highest. It was just that even back in antiquity times, no one had ever achieved becoming a genuine Celestial Immortal. In the times of ancient deities, the cultivation of most deities usually stagnated in the Divine Immortal Realm. Only if one broke through to a higher realm and stepped into the legendary Realm of Master Deities could he claim to be an Earthly Immortal. As for the Celestial Immortal, which was one realm higher than the Earthly Immortal, it was the Realm of supreme experts selected from Primordial Demons, Innate Deities, and Primordial Fierce Beasts. If one broke through the Earthly Immortal Realm, he would be called as a supreme expert. Based on accounts of ancient deities, only supreme deities could possess the Karmic Rank of the Celestial Immortal. Among the Five Immortal Realms, the one at the lowest level was the Ghost Immortal Realm, which was also known as the Genuine Immortal Realm. But why did people call it the Ghost Immortal Realm? This was because the Thunder Tribulation produced after you broke through the Three Big Realms would have the greatest influence upon the spirit; this would solidify your spirit and render it powerful and intelligent. Even if your spirit was separated from your body, your flesh would not decay or disappear. That was the reason why the people there were known as Ghost Immortals. In comparison, though the Thunder Tribulation was quite useful in perfecting your body, the effect it had on the spirit was far more beneficial. Therefore, Genuine Immortals were actually Ghost Immortals. But it was just that the pneuma was extremely rare in the present world, therefore becoming a Genuine Immortal was ultimately the most ambitious dream a practitioner could have. Anyway, the name “Ghost Immortal” did not sound auspicious, so these Ghost Immortals began to call themselves “Genuine Immortals” and categorized themselves by the number of Thunder Tribulations they had gone through. Frankly, all the Sages, Venerables and Lords of Heaven were Ghost Immortals. As for the Human Immortal who was one rank higher than the Ghost Immortal, the circumstances were very different. He had to undergo Tribulations as well. However, what he needed to endure were not merely Thunder Tribulations but also Fire Tribulations, collectively called “Thunder-fire Tribulations”. The Thunder-fire Tribulation also had a forging effect on the spirit, but its main function was the opposite of a sole Thunder Tribulation—it was used to forge the flesh. This was exactly what the “Thunder-fire Bath breeds Golden Body” meant. There were nine Thunder-fire Tribulations for a person to undergo. In the end, when a Human Immortal obtained the Three Flowers above the Head and Five Kinds of Qi by practice, he would then be able to refine his golden body and get ready to advance to the Divine Immortal Realm. Thinking in terms of the Earthly Immortal who was superior to the Divine Immortal, let’s think about how hard it is to attain the Master Immortal level from a High-ranked Immortal level and the answer would be rather obvious. As for advancing from an Earthly Immortal to a Celestial Immortal, which meant being promoted from a Master Immortal to a Top Immortal, nobody knew what kind of process this was. It would easily take 100 million years, which was not something Zhou Bao, a guy whose ages in two life spans did not even add up to 50, could imagine. Let leave those high-ranking living creatures alone and instead look at the inferior ones. Those ranked below the Ghost Immortals were common people, such as Individual Immortals. In fact, this title was just a fancy name that the common practitioners invented for themselves. The Mysterious Realm was called “False Immortal Realm” or “Sham Immortal Realm”, which clearly indicated that those immortals were not actually immortals. Though they possessed some abilities of authentic immortals, their Real Bodies were still not immortals. To transform into a real immortal, one had to start with one’s spirit. Only if the spirit had gone through the Thunder Tribulation and survived could one become a true immortal. But before the Thunder Tribulation, no matter how powerful you were or how great your strength was, you were just a common human being, or at most a powerful common human being.